Defence counsel in the trial of a man whom gardaí believe is the head of the IRA in Dublin told the three-judge Special Criminal Court yesterday there was not a "shred of evidence" against his client.
Diarmaid McGuinness SC was making his closing speech in the trial of Joseph Clarke (37), a father of four, Santry Avenue, Dublin, who denies membership of the IRA in January this year.
Mr McGuinness said there was no physical evidence linking Mr Clarke to extortions he allegedly carried out, or to the explosion of a pipe bomb the prosecution said he organised.
He also said Mr Clarke's association with men convicted of IRA membership was insignificant because those people were convicted long before Mr Clarke was alleged to have joined the terrorist organisation.
In his closing statement for the prosecution, Garnett Orange said if the court viewed the evidence "accumulatively", it would see it as corroboration of his guilt.
Mr Orange also said it was the State's case that Mr Clarke mistakenly organised for the pipe bomb to explode in the wrong house.
Mr Justice John McMenamin, presiding, reserved judgment.